Business growth advice

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New Member

I am looking for advice on growing my business. We are a small service business with potential growth opportunities. I do not have good social or interpersonal skills. Some clients I have can bring in more business if I could sell them our company but I am not good with that. I also have ideas on how to expand but I do not know how to make them a reality. We have been in business for 2 years and have revenues over $300,000 and growing with profits of $100,000+. Which is great as I was always was use to making under $40K. but I think we can do much better. Plus I cut a lot of corners trying to make as much as I can. My question is what type of employee can I get to help me grow. Should I get a sales person, Manager, CEO or ? I am very hands on and I am also looking to slow down my role and have other personnel run the business while I oversee them. This does not need to happen right a way but in the future I would like to step back and do less but still have full control. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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New Member

Hi Jssndjy,
That entirely depends on what is your line of business and what is your organizational structure as of now. Where exactly do you lack?
Do a SWOT Analysis and then decide the weak points. After that you will be able to judge what kind of professional do you need.

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Consider the different roles in your business (not people, roles). What is being done and what will you label it (using sales person, admin etc).? Which of these roles do you like doing and are good at? Which do you not like doing are are not that good at? Consider hiring someone to do the latter. Ask yourself how this person will add value to your customers and to your ability to deliver to customers. Initially you may hire someone to help and assist and later more to manage.

To sell yourself ask yourself how you can help your clients. Then talk to them and tell them how you think you can help them. Often clients appreciate someone who genuinely want to help and we all realize the person is also marketing themselves. If you are enthusiastic about how you can help them that will go a long way.

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Definitely update your SWOT analysis if you already have one. What are your strengths? What are the strengths of your business? Always play to your strengths and don't waste your time on the weak points. Focus on the needs of your customers and provide the appropriate solutions.
If you need a good marketing or sales 'player' in your team - get one fast. If you're good with analysis or operation, stick to that. Let the marketing / sales person do the pitch.

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I agree with the opinion of Krisz Rokk.First of all you must focus on the need of customers and according to their demand,you need to provide services to them.before starting your business,you have to study the current market situation.For that you can refer different market report or books which provides data on market research,market survey etc.It will help you.

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Customer service and always exceed your customers expectations is the best thing for any business. Take care of them, and they'll take care of you. With the economy being bad as it is. Growing the business is harder than ever before. Use to be everyone is buying, but its slowing down. Read up on UPS and FedEx. They are usually a good with letting us know how or what the economy is doing along with banking news. Good luck and work hard as it will pay off in the long run.

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New Member

Definitely update your SWOT analysis if you already have one. What are your strengths? What are the strengths of your business? Always play to your strengths and don't waste your time on the weak points. Focus on the needs of your customers and provide the appropriate solutions.
If you need a good marketing or sales 'player' in your team - get one fast. If you're good with analysis or operation, stick to that. Let the marketing / sales person do the pitch.

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your are right Krisz Rokk because positive points always give the positive result.

hi
jssndjy
I think that you have need to study on your business I mean that what is the strengths of your business in market and also you should read the market research report related to your business.

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New Member

Before you can step back from your business, you have to look at what it is that you "do" in the business. You have to find a way to replace all of these things. For this, I would recommend reading "The E-Myth, by Micheal Gerber" This will teach you how to work on your business, rather than work in it. It will show you how to do this through processes, and policies.

If you are looking to make your expansion ideas a reality, try some of Doug Hall's books. He teaches how to turn innovation into a reality. When I read his books, I implemented things in my business that changed the way we do it. While we are on the topic of innovation, Eric Ries has a book called "The Lean Startup" this book teaches how to implement these ideas too. I would check out these two authors if you haven't already.

Please e-mail me if you have any other questions, I have read a book on just about every topic and tested these ideas as well. I would love to help you grow your business!

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